Pause and resume

Pausing in Backup is non-destructive: existing archives, policy configuration, credentials, and attachments all stay exactly as they are. The schedule simply stops firing until you re-enable it.

There are two levels. The dashboard shows both states (the Active/Inactive badge on the datasource, the Enabled/Disabled badge per policy attachment); switching them is done from the CLI or the API.

Pause one policy attachment

Stops one schedule on one datasource; other policies attached to the same datasource keep running. Right for "skip the hourly tier during the migration, keep the daily".

nrc snapdb policy list --datasource <id>          # find the policy
nrc snapdb policy pause  --datasource <id> --policy <policyId>
nrc snapdb policy resume --datasource <id> --policy <policyId>

(API: PATCH /datasources/{id}/policies/{policyId} with {"enabled": false}.)

Pause a whole datasource

The master switch — stops every schedule for one database. Right for maintenance windows, or for a database you're decommissioning but not ready to delete.

nrc snapdb datasource pause      # interactive picker
nrc snapdb datasource pause <id>
nrc snapdb datasource resume <id>

(API: PATCH /datasources/{id} with {"isActive": false}.)

What pausing actually does

• Scheduling stops at the next tick. No new jobs are enqueued for the paused scope.
• Already-queued and running jobs still complete. Pausing is not a cancel button — a job enqueued a second before the pause will run.
• Manual runs still work on a paused datasource: Run backup now queues a job regardless of the pause state (it only requires an enabled attachment to pick a policy from).
• Retention keeps running. Existing backups continue aging out under their policies while paused. Pausing stops making backups, not expiring them — if the pause outlives your retention window, you can end up with zero recent backups (the keep-last-N floor is what protects the final N).
• No catch-up on resume. Missed slots aren't backfilled; the next matching cron time fires normally.
• Nothing is billed for paused schedules except the storage of backups you're keeping.

Activation changes are audited (datasource.activated, datasource.deactivated; attachment toggles appear as policy updates).

Pause vs. detach vs. delete